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Sindhuli’s remote village in the east of Nepal


Sindhuli District in eastern Nepal is surrounded by eleven other districts and is situated along the Mahabharata range of mountains. The population of the agricultural district is almost 300,000. It is also the home of the Kuti Pass and the Sindhuli Fort commemorating the first time a British force was defeated in Asia. Hence it is of significance to the Gorkha army and to Nepal. Currently a new section of the BP Koirala Highway, leading from Kathmandu to India, is being constructed. Therefore there is a section of excellent paved road with hairpin bends, and still more sections of the narrow rroad yet to be paved. The Japanese Government is funding the Banepa-Sindhuli-Bardibas road construction which commenced in November 1996.
In a remote mountain region, four hours by vehicle from the District’s main centre, is the Bhimsthan village - seven hours east of Kathmandu. Here the village school, the Sarshwoti Secondary School of 436 students, has an earthworm farm to fertilize the school’s vegetable garden (with bringal, chillies, and tomatoes). The sale of the vegetables funds school improvements as well as stationery and uniforms for the students. In a small country where tourism is its highest revenue earner, there are still villages that have not yet seen “foreigners”. The 75-year-old village elder said he had never seen a foreigner, and the whole closely-knit community, with the school students, enthusiastically demonstrated their successful and self-sufficient farming techniques. 






MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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